Man sentenced to nine years in prison for cancer scam

Posted: Sunday, December 23, 2001

By Associated Press

RICHMOND -- After persuading ailing patients or their relatives to dole out thousands of dollars for fraudulent cancer treatments, John Paul Dyke has been sentenced to nine years in prison, more than twice the time sentencing guidelines recommend for fraud.

Michael Halpern of Key West, Fla., said Dyke told Halpern's seriously ill wife that her husband didn't love her and she should go with him to Richmond for cancer treatments.

''It's an evil that I have never seen before, and I hope that I never see again,'' Halpern told U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams before Thursday's sentencing.

After a tip from Halpern, authorities discovered 18 fraud victims who paid Dyke more than $300,000, including 12 who have died. Williams noted that the 12 had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, so he could not attribute their deaths to Dyke.

Halpern said his wife, Michelle, had a kidney transplant in 1990 and was diagnosed with cancer in 1999.

As her health deteriorated, she learned about Dyke and the ''green soup'' he was touting as a cure for cancer.

Dyke, 49, pretended to be a doctor who was trained in the Netherlands and practiced in Thailand and Cambodia, where he developed the miracle cure from a concoction of Oriental herbs and vegetables.

He said he had cured brain cancer in his wife and presented medical records as proof. He concealed records showing the tumor was not malignant.

Dyke even convinced a prominent physician at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospitals that there was some validity to the treatment. The physician finally discounted the claims when Dyke was unable to produce medical credentials.

Halpern called police when his wife left home, and authorities discovered Dyke had no medical license. They raided his home and rescued Mrs. Halpern from a Richmond motel.

Halpern said his wife's cancer is in remission, but she must undergo dialysis three days a week.

He believes his wife's kidney condition worsened because of a lapse in treatment while she was with Dyke.

Clarice Williams, who lives near Blacksburg, testified that she paid Dyke $8,500 for the ''green soup'' for her husband, Billy, who was diagnosed with cancer in October 1998.

The soup ''is the most horrendous thing I've ever smelled in my life, and I've smelled a dead body,'' she told the judge.

Williams said she and her husband followed Dyke's instructions and discontinued his other medication. Instead, he tried to drink a cup of the soup twice a day, even though he had troubling swallowing it and keeping it down, she said.

Williams said after she told Dyke that her husband had died, he cursed and told her that she had not followed his instructions properly.

''This was the worst mistake of my life,'' she said.

The judge ordered Dyke to repay more than $300,000 to the victims. Authorities seized about $160,000 from three bank accounts when they arrested him in February and he forfeited cash and property worth another $60,000, his attorney Carolyn V. Grady said.